Cohort Crocodile Conservation
Every year on World Crocodile Day, conservationists, scientists and wildlife enthusiasts pause to celebrate one of nature’s most extraordinary survivors, the crocodilian. These ancient reptiles, often called the “Living Dinosaurs,” have stalked the planet’s rivers, swamps and estuaries for more than 200 million years, outliving the dinosaurs themselves. Of the world’s 28 species of crocodilians, India is home to three remarkable representatives. The long-snouted Gharial, the freshwater Mugger Crocodile and the mighty Saltwater Crocodile.
As the world marked another World Crocodile Day on 17th June, India has a special reason to celebrate. The country has completed 51 years of crocodile conservation, one of the most successful wildlife recovery programmes in Asia, transforming a seemingly hopeless situation into a conservation success story which is rarely talked about or discussed.
A Crisis That Sparked Action
By the early 1970s, India’s crocodilians were staring at extinction. Unregulated hunting, egg collection, habitat destruction, river modification and fishing pressures had devastated populations across the subcontinent. The Gharial, once abundant in the great river systems of northern India, had almost vanished. Mugger crocodiles survived only in scattered pockets, while Saltwater Crocodiles had disappeared from much of their former range.Recognizing the urgency, the Government of India launched the Crocodile Conservation Project in 1975 with scientific guidance and international support. What followed became one of the country’s most remarkable wildlife recovery initiatives ever implemented.
Bringing Back the Gharial
Among the three species, the Gharial emerged as the flagship of crocodile conservation. Distinguished by its elongated snout lined with needle-sharp teeth, this specialized fish-eater had reached the brink of extinction by the mid-1970s.Five decades later, the picture is dramatically different. Through captive breeding, nest protection, habitat management and reintroduction programmes, India has increased the population to more than 5,000 individuals in the wild and captivity. The species is now performing relatively well within the Ganges River basin, which supports more than 4,000 individuals.
Yet the battle is not over. The Gharial continues to remain in the Critically Endangered category. While encouraging populations exist in parts of the Ganges system, its historical presence in the Indus, Brahmaputra and Mahanadi river basins remains a conservation challenge. To secure its future, India has launched a renewed Gharial conservation programme coordinated by the Wildlife Institute of India, focusing on research, habitat protection and population recovery.
The Mugger’s Comeback in Southern India
The story of the Mugger Crocodile is equally fascinating. Unlike the fish-eating Gharial, the Mugger is a versatile predator capable of thriving in rivers, reservoirs, lakes and marshes. By the 1970s, however, even this adaptable reptile had become rare across much of peninsular India.
The erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh was among the pioneering states, alongside Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra, to launch the Mugger Crocodile Conservation Project in 1976. As India celebrates 51 years of crocodile conservation, the region comprising present-day Andhra Pradesh and Telangana marks its own golden jubilee of 50 years in safeguarding these ancient reptiles.
A cornerstone of this effort was the establishment of a dedicated breeding and rearing centre at Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad. Scientists adopted an innovative conservation strategy by collecting wild-laid Mugger eggs from nesting sites along the Krishna and Godavari rivers and incubating them under carefully controlled conditions. The hatchlings were reared until they reached about 3 to 4 feet in length, greatly enhancing their chances of survival, before being released into designated crocodile sanctuaries.
Encouraged by the success of the Mugger programme, conservationists attempted to extend the initiative to the Saltwater Crocodile by creating the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary. Four juvenile crocodiles were released into the mangrove ecosystem, but opposition from local artisanal fishing communities and other challenges meant that the experiment did not succeed, and the released crocodiles failed to survive. What endured, however, was the protection of the magnificent Coringa Mangrove Ecosystem itself. Today, the sanctuary stands as one of Andhra Pradesh’s ecological jewels, sheltering an impressive array of wildlife including the Fishing Cat, Otters, and the endangered Indian Skimmer birds.
Five Sanctuaries That Changed History
Between 1976 and 1981, Andhra Pradesh established five protected areas that would play a pivotal role in the Mugger’s recovery.The first was the Manjira Sanctuary in Medak district along the Manjira River, a tributary of the Godavari. Today it continues to support a breeding Mugger population and remains an important aquatic ecosystem.
The second was the Shivaram Sanctuary near Manthani town on the Godavari River. Though relatively small, it once contributed Mugger eggs to the Hyderabad conservation centre and still harbours a surviving population.The third was the Kinnerasani Sanctuary in present-day Telangana, which continues to sustain a thriving crocodile population amidst rich forest landscapes.However, the two most significant protected areas would evolve into landscapes of national importance.
Where Rivers and Forests Unite
The creation of the Papikonda Sanctuary marked a visionary conservation milestone. Stretching along a spectacular section of the Godavari River as it winds through the Eastern Ghats, the sanctuary was initially conceived to protect Mugger crocodiles and their riverine habitat.
Over time, it grew into one of India’s most important biodiversity landscapes. Its forests shelter Leopard, Tiger and numerous species of birds, reptiles and amphibians. The majestic Godavari gorge, flanked by verdant hills, has become both a conservation stronghold and a destination for nature tourism.Today, Papikonda stands as a shining example of how protecting a single species can ultimately safeguard an entire ecosystem and other wildlife species.
Crocodile Legacy &Tiger Reserve
Perhaps the most fascinating chapter in this story lies behind the creation of the NagarjunaSagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, India’s largest Tiger Reserve.During the late 1970s, wildlife biologists involved in the crocodile project were searching for extensive water bodies capable of supporting rehabilitated Mugger populations. Their surveys identified the vast NagarjunaSagar and Srisailam reservoirs on the Krishna River, surrounded by the forests of the Nallamala hills.
The region offered something unique because an enormous stretch of freshwater habitat for crocodiles alongside extensive forests capable of supporting Tigers and other terrestrial wildlife.Recognizing this extraordinary opportunity, the state proposed more than 3,500 square kilometres of forest and aquatic habitat as a Tiger Reserve in 1981-82. At that time, nearly 200 rehabilitated Mugger crocodiles had already been released into these waters, while approximately 28 Tigers roamed the surrounding forests.
Today, the reserve remains not only India’s largest Tiger Reserve but also one of the country’s largest connecting freshwater ecosystems, supporting Mugger crocodiles, Otters and the giant Peninsular Softshell Turtle, Nilssonia leithii.
Species Conservation to Landscape Conservation
Reflecting on this remarkable journey is Prof. B.C. Choudhury, one of India’s foremost crocodilian experts who has travelled extensively across the Indian landscape. As a wildlife biologist associated with the Andhra Pradesh Crocodile Conservation Project between 1976 and 1985, he played a key role in surveying, demarcating and establishing these protected areas before later joining the Wildlife Institute of India.According to Prof. Choudhury, conservation thinking has evolved dramatically over the past five decades.
Many of these crocodile habitats are now embedded within larger Tiger Reserves where both aquatic and terrestrial apex predators receive protection. The focus is no longer limited to safeguarding individual species or isolated habitats but has expanded to managing entire landscapes and ecosystems. Under this umbrella, ecological processes, biodiversity, water security and ecosystem services are conserved together.
Looking Ahead
As India celebrates 51 years of crocodile conservation, Prof. Choudhury believes the time is right for a comprehensive assessment of crocodilian populations. This is across the country’s 58 Tiger Reserves where the most secure wildlife landscapes in India still exist despite largescale deforestation and destruction of original wilderness. Such an evaluation would perfectly complement the philosophy of the National Tiger Conservation Authority and protect the apex predator and its habitat, and the entire ecosystem benefits.
The story of India’s crocodiles demonstrates exactly that principle. Efforts launched to save a handful of threatened reptiles have helped create sanctuaries, national parks and tiger reserves that now protect forests, rivers, wetlands and countless species of unique Indian flora and fauna.On World Crocodile Day& month, as Gharials bask on the sandbanks of the Ganges, Muggers patrol the waters of the Godavari and Krishna, and Saltwater Crocodiles reign over mangrove estuaries, India can proudly celebrate a conservation achievement spanning more than half a century.
While crocodile populations were periodically monitored until the late 1980s by the erstwhile Central Crocodile Breeding and Management Training Institute and later by the Wildlife Institute of India, no comprehensive assessment has been undertaken in recent decades. With occasional incidents of human-crocodile conflict continuing to surface, a scientific statewide survey of crocodile populations in both protected and unprotected wetlands is urgently needed to guide future conservation and wildlife management strategies.
It is a story not merely of saving crocodiles, but of safeguarding entire landscapes where rivers, forests, wildlife and people continue to coexist. In that grand conservation vision, the crocodilian and the tiger stand together as guardians of India’s wild future.
Text & Photographs by
N. Shiva Kumar
